Hello! Would appreciate any basic explanation on how airconditioners work. Mine just got busted (and I’m from a very hot, tropical country!). I’m tempted to just call the maintenance guy, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to first learn about it before spending some dough. I’ll be using A/C units all my life anyway.
Been watching some YT videos but once terms like “latent heat vaporization” are mentioned, my mind just shuts off. Many thanks to all the articulate and patient folks out there!
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The main thing at play is that when a liquid turns into a gas, it gets colder, and when a gas is compressed into a liquid, it gets hotter. The liquid can be anything, but we use special liquids that are more efficient and can handle more extreme temperatures than plain water, and generically these liquids are just called ‘refrigerants’.
Your AC system is a closed loop, meaning it’s just a pipe where both ends are connected to each other, and the refrigerant is on the inside of the pipe. For your house, half of the loop is on the inside of your house, and half of it is on the outside of your house. Using a compressor, the refrigerant is condensed into a liquid as it goes outside your house and gets hot. We use a big fan outside to blow air across the pipe to help cool it down, and as it renters your house, it loses pressure and starts turning back into a gas, causing it to get colder. On the inside of the house we use another big fan to blow air across the cold pipes, this makes the air cold, and using duct work send that cold air to various parts of the house.
A common misconception is that when you turn a thermostat to a certain temperature, let’s say 72F, that your AC is blowing out air that is 72F. This is not how air conditioning works, the cold pipes are very cold, and the air going past them are very cold. When your AC is on, you are pumping very cold air into your house and it is mixing with the warm air that is already there. When the mixture reaches the temperature that is set on your thermostat, it stops until it needs to add more cold air into your house.
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